But here's where it is relevant. In the wake of that, and in the wake of Tuskegee and other incidents where medicine betrayed the interests of vulnerable patients, there has been put in place a very robust system of protections for human subjects of experimentation. And this is something that anyone who works anywhere in the field of experimentation — whether it's psychology or whether it's medicine or drug trials — everyone who lives in that world knows that we have this very careful process that's enforced by the federal government.

So it's from that regime that we get the definitions of what constitutes experimentation and how it's done correctly and how it's done incorrectly. So it was using that framework — we applied that to what they were doing in this interrogation program. And we saw — saw described — the systematic collection and analysis of data regarding the application of these techniques and we felt that they were describing basic elements of human subject research.

IN YOUR NEW ARTICLE YOU CALL FOR DOCTORS TO HAVE FULL INDEPENDENCE FROM THE CHAIN OF COMMAND. YOU CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN TORTURE. YOU CALL FOR THOSE WHO DOCUMENT IT TO BE PROTECTED. WHAT OF THOSE ITEMS IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT? There needs to be, at some level, a full and open and honest accounting of what happened here, what went wrong, so that we can put measures in place to see that this type of violation of professional ethics — and violation of trust — does not occur again.

DO YOU HAVE MUCH CONFIDENCE THAT THE PACKAGE OF REFORMS YOU CALL FOR WILL BE APPROVED? IS WASHINGTON WILLING? It's going to be a long-term process, but I am optimistic. I think, ultimately, when America does stray away from its principles, it eventually rights the ship. But it took quite a lot to get us off track and it's going to take a concerted effort to get us back on track.

We have engaged and had some success in our dialogue with people in the Department of Defense. They can't speak out. But they very much share our view that this went wrong and they want to restore the tradition where government employees and military medical people follow the same ethics that civilian health professionals do.

An Obama confidant on the surge in Afghanistan Twenty-four hours before President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop escalation of the Afghan War, one of his key foreign policy advisors provided a view of the president’s thinking at Brown University.

Hearts and souls (and laughs too) It's been a good year for theater around here — an ingeniously roasted dramatic chestnut here, a new and safely landed flight of fancy there. Below are 10 productions that particularly stood out.

A nation hooked on cars The car is at the center of many of our troubles — our addiction to oil, the warming of the planet. Car accidents do incalculable damage.

A Palestinian student remembers his Israeli friend Schaefer, the Brown University student recently killed by a suspected drunk driver on the streets of Providence, left behind hundreds of friends, including soldiers in the Israeli army, with whom he served for three years before coming to Brown.

A Dutch treat lands in Providence Not long ago, a Brown student with a big idea decided to bake cookies. A ho-hum sugar cookie wouldn't do. No, this budding baker wanted something a bit more exotic.

Screams from solitary The 132-man supermax unit within the 925-man Maine State Prison is an expensive, taxpayer-funded torture chamber that for 18 years has sucked in mostly nonviolent, mostly mentally ill prisoners and ground them up by means of mind-destroying solitary confinement, officially sanctioned beatings, “restraint” devices resembling those in medieval dungeons, sexual humiliation, and psychiatric, medical, and legal neglect.

LIBERAL WARRIOR | April 10, 2013 When it comes to his signature issues — climate change, campaign finance reform, tax fairness — Whitehouse makes little secret of his approach: marshal the facts, hammer the Republicans, and embarrass them into action.

AT BROWN, A WIN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTS | April 11, 2013 A key Brown University oversight committee has voted to recommend the school divest from coal, delivering a significant victory to student climate change activists.

HACKING POLITICS: A GUIDE | April 03, 2013 Last year, the Internet briefly upended everything we know about American politics.

BREAK ON THROUGH | March 28, 2013 When I spoke with Treasurer Gina Raimondo this week, I opened with the obligatory question about whether she'll run for governor. "I'm seriously considering it," she said. "But I think as you know — we've talked about it before — I have little kids: a six-year-old, an eight-year-old. I'm a mother. It's a big deal."

THE LIBERAL CASE FOR GUNS | March 27, 2013 The school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut spurred hope not just for sensible gun regulation, but for a more nuanced discussion of America's gun culture. Neither wish has been realized.